>SNIP
>>The US was _not_ founded as a Christian nation.
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>>Tamar
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>I agree with you that official documents stress that this nation is not tied to any relgion, but it was indeed a christian nation when it was founded. It was the separation of Church and State (as you pointed out) that was so ground-breaking at the time. Religion was often used in support of an argument or position. Take the first paragraph of Ben Franklin's speech on the last day of the constitutional convention:
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I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."
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>Funny that you should post that paragraph. When I finished the Walter Isaacson biography of Franklin a few months ago, which quotes that near the end, I'm pretty sure I posted part of that paragraph in another place where I discuss politics.
As for "Christian nation," I consciously capitalized. This country was founded to be a place with no official religion. Sure, many of the founders were influenced by religious thought and some of them were deeply religious, but they made a conscious choice not to have a state religion. I'm not sure where I picked this link up (could have been from you, in fact), but I've had this page bookmarked for some time:
http://www.bjcpa.org/resources/pubs/pub_walker_barton.htmTamar
